Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Earthquake

So we had a 5.5 magnitude earthquake here today. It is really, really rare for this area even though there is a small fault line located close by. It was enough for Roo and I to stop our work and say what the h*ck was that? So I called my husband to ask him if he felt it too, or was I going nuts? He said he thought it was a big truck passing by his work up until the moment I called and asked him if her felt it. It's strange because it was so minor, but was still enough to scare us like we were just waiting for something bigger and badder to come along. I can't imagine what it must be like to live in an earthquake prone area.  I used to live in B.C. when I was young, but even the few quakes I experienced there were very small in comparison so other places in the world. The terror those people must feel when a high magnitude earthquake hits isn't even imaginable.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Still doing school in the middle of moving. Yuck.

I actually like moving. I find it exciting to pack all your stuff and be able to set it up in a new and improved (and hopefully slightly more tidy) home. I just am not a fan of of doing it on less than two weeks notice. We've been looking for a more centralized apartment for a couple of months with no success. Low and behold, the perfect one, in the perfect area falls into our laps this weekend. The only problem is that is was for July 1st. So the insane organizing, purging, cleaning and attempting of packing (hardly any boxes until tomorrow) and panic is slowly starting to set in. My husband works most of the week, so the majority of this organization is left to me......  If I had access to a large dumpster I would be tossing left right and center. Only when my husband wasn't home though, because he has minor pack rat tendencies:)

Even though we have been really busy, we still have been consistently doing our summer school work....except the day I had a migraine:). Mostly phonics/reading, spelling/handwriting, math and French in the mornings. The we get into our comfortable clothes and get to work. It's funny how you can accumulate so much crap in a short period of time. We have lived in this house for three and a bit years and I swear we have twice as much stuff now. It freaks me out a little. I wish we could have an organized, streamlined more Ikea catalogue looking house. As I am packing clothes up I am kind of starting to worry that there might not be closets in the bedrooms. I can't remember for the life of me. I just remember walking through with a sense of relief that we found the right place. The convenience of living central  is what appeals to me. My husbands work is a block away, the grocery store is a block and a half away, the library is right around the corner, plus access to all the cafes, restaurants and shops. I am so much more of a city dweller than a suburban home owner. Some people don't seem to understand why we currently have no desire to buy a house on a quiet street, plant a garden etc. It's just not us at this point in our lives, and not everyone has that same goal or dream. So as I ramble, I am losing precious packing time. Off to try to get the chaos under control.



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At least she has gotten in some bike riding. Although she walks it more than rides it:) Apparently her helmet needs adjusting, as it is falling off her forehead.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Year at a Glance Spreadsheet is Finally Finished!

Call me the queen of procrastination, but I finally finished our year at a glance for the Grade 1, 2010-2011 school year. I have 42 weeks as the listed amount of school weeks, because we are going to be schooling year round for a bit (I don't want her young brain to completely forget things if we take too much time off). I was having some upload issues but I think it has been resolved. So below is the link to our schedule.

Gr. 1 Year at a Glance 2010-2011

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Eat Your Vegetables!

This is a common, funny thing you always hear associated with kids. For some reason, I seem to have the opposite problem. Roo loves green stuff. Broccoli is the favorite, but only when steamed, cucumbers - salted, green peppers, peas, beans, spinach salad and the adding of colour with carrots and corn. My problem is that she will eat all of the vegetables and leave the meat and other courses. Then complain 1/2 hour later that she is hungry and wants a peanut butter and honey sandwich. I have tried a million different things to eat but she will only stick to certain things, and even then she is fickle. How do you feed a kids a balanced meal when all she does is pick pieces from it? I make cucumber water almost daily (because I hate he non taste of plain water) and every time I open the fridge, there are less and less slices of cucumbers floating in the jug. I know I shouldn't complain because she likes to eat the green stuff, but I also want a nice balance of all of the healthy things.

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I spent the rainy afternoon re-reading the Latin Centered Curriculum....again. Then I got up and came to the computer and finished my year at a glance spreadsheet. Which I will post on here later because I was having some upload issues. My next thing I want to tackle is how I want my weekly schedule to look. I want it more to resemble an LCC ideal, but I don't know if that is possible with the curriculum choices I made. I've got some serious planning to do since time seems to be flying by. Now off to steam some broccoli and do a little more planning.

The Latin-Centered Curriculum: A Home Educator's Guide to a Traditional Classical Education

Friday, June 4, 2010

Weekly Report for Two Weeks Since I Missed Last Week. Oops

Welcome back to myself. I haven't posted anything in over a week, when I promised myself I would post at least weekly. I am blaming it on the heat. Since our central air is broken, we only have an a/c in one room and it is not the computer room. I have pretty much been camping out in the living room and avoiding all other rooms. That's my excuse.


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Taken in front of the newly bloomed flowers on our walk through town.

As for what we have been up to, we have reached lesson 140 in The Ordinary Parents Guide. I have decided I would stop new lessons at this point and just do review for the next little while. I have been checking out a lot of I Read, You Read books from the library and they have become a large part of our phonics lessons.

In Spelling Workout we have finished lesson 21 this week. My goal is to finish book A by the end of summer so that she may start book B when our Gr.1 officially begins. We may have to do 2 lessons a few of the weeks to be able to accomplish this goal though.

Math focused on basic addition, skip counting and telling time to the half hour on an analog clock this week. She is getting better at trying to tell what time it is, and I find that she periodically will announce the time throughout the day. She tries especially hard if a commercial tells her that one of her favorite shows will be on a certain time.


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It was supposed to rain that day, but chose to be incredibly hot instead. The umbrella became a handy sun blocker.

For Geography we worked on Europe and Africa. Where they are located, some important facts and how to find them on a globe. She knows Italy is shaped like a boot and uses that as her reference for finding it's location. In French we have been working on colours and review of past lessons. I am finding that we are spending 2 weeks to cover a new concept. I do not move onto anything new until she is quite familiar with what has been taught. She is really enjoying it though which makes me happy because I would like her to reach fluency in a second language as an end goal.

Art class was cancelled this week, but last week she made a painting. Next week is the last class, so she is going to be sad over the summer because she really enjoys it. For September she falls into the next age group, so classes are longer and more independent of parents.


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She is still working on a name for this painting. 

I have been trying to figure out next years game plan for the last few months. When I think I may be onto something I find myself over thinking and changing things yet again. I have the curriculum that I want, I just find myself leaning more towards the Latin Centered Curriculum concept vs. The Well Trained Mind. I don't know though, because for me personally history is a huge part of my life and so very important for education. So if I do go more LCC I will still have to try to integrate a larger focus on history than once a week. I hate stress:( These pictures made me laugh though. Yet again some pictures she took of herself that I found on my camera when I uploaded pictures. She's obviously not very camera shy:)


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